Oswego earns ‘A’ for effort,but Tigers get SPC ‘W’Rehder keeps the slate clean for Plainfield North

By Steve Nemeth

OSWEGO -- Other than the final score, Oswego coach Brian Falli cited positive after positive in the Panthers’ play in their Southwest Prairie Conference opener against Plainfield North.

In an ironic contrast, North boss Stephen Berry didn’t mince words in describing the 1-0 road victory.“We got a win, that’s about it,” Berry said as the Tigers – an honorable mention team in this week’s Chicagoland Soccer Top 25 which climbed to 3-1-2 overall, and 1-0-0 in their first game in defense of their 2015 SPC title.

When pressed for any bright spots, Berry did go beyond his initial reaction to enthusiastically endorse goalie Justin Rehder for Chicagoland Soccer’s Man of the Match accolade.“It is our first shutout this year and that’s notable in that we’ve used both Cade (Fink) and Justin. There were a few instances when he came up big, which is significant in a 1-0 match,” Berry said. “I’d prefer our defense not to put him in that position, but he stood tall on some key moments.”

“Making my first shutout the first for the team feels good,” Rehder said. “Being a conference game made the experience a little more intense. Hopefully I can keepbuilding on this and helping our team continue to succeed.”Although Oswego’s quest for a first triumph continues, Falli viewed the Panthers’ play as continuing an upward progression despite an 0-5-1 overall mark.

Outside of a horrific four-minute span during a 3-0 loss to Benet, Falli was encouraged by a scoreless half of play against the Redwings, followed by a 1-1 draw with Fremd.

Add Tuesday’s one-goal setback versus the school aiming for a fourth SPC crown in five years, and the third-year coach is optimistic.“We made one major mistake, otherwise we outshot them, we out-possessed them, and we outworked them,” Falli said. “Unfortunately, we even hit more posts. I believe our progress for the last three matches in particular is undeniable.”Oswego began the game with a dangerous cross eight minutes in that Rehder soared after and cut off. Three minutes later, Mitch Kearby’s long ball was wide right. Under 14 minutes had elapsed when North’s Ryan Cartwright worked a fast break to the right side, and sailed a 17-yarder wide of the left post.

Oswego's Julian Ibarra cracked a 12-yarder from the right side that Rehder cradled. Then came misses just wide left and right, respectively, by Kearby and Adrian Veseli, before Rehder registered an easy save on high fly ball.There was only 8:03 left in the opening half when North got its initial genuine shot on goal. Adan Juarez attacked from the left side with a blistering 16-yarder that Oswego keeper Nick Kearns blocked. The rebound squirted beyond his grasp, where Nick Anweiler scored on a 6-yard putback.

“My goal is to always to get attempts on net expecting a goal, but at the least possibly creating a chance for someone else,” Juarez said. “We were lucky to have someone there for the finish, but that’s also why we keep attacking.”Regardless of the set-up, the senior co-captain welcomed netting his team-best fifth goal.

“Maybe it was easy, but sometimes people can get lost in the moment and either hurry the shot or not strike it cleanly,” Anweiler said. “Every goal feels good but 1-0 in a conference game is a little better. Either way, it can be a confidence booster for myself and our offense.”Oswego responded with some offense. Johnny Kraemer had a header with 6:27 left in the half that Rehder snagged, and the Panther sophomore then saw a kick go wide right.Seven minutes into the second half, Oswego's Ibarra ricocheted a solid shot off the left post. Six minutes later, the Panthers' had a golden opportunity for an equalizer when a ball bounced to Veseli. Looking at the empty half of the net, he saw his shot rise over the crossbar.North missed headers to the left and right before play swung to the opposite end, where Ibarra got off a shot against an out-rushing Rehder, only to see his shot hit the left post.

“That’s soccer, you have to wipe close calls like that out of your mind and keep attacking,” Ibarra said. “If you don’t, you may not be prepared for the next chance.

“There’s no doubt in my mind we can score, and we can win. We just have to keep pushing, scrapping, and things will turn in our favor.”That didn’t quite happen; 40 seconds later, the Panthers’ Kearby had a solid header tipped away by a leaping Rehder.North then put together an offensive run that created a quality chance for Juarez, but Oswego’s Kearns made another of his patented stops. Six minutes later, Kearns dove to his left to deflect a shot wide for another highlight-reel-worthy visual. In the scramble that followed the corner-kick, it was the visiting Tigers’ turn to notch a carom off the left post with a follow-up sent wide.On the counterattack, a burst of speed from Ibarra produced a steal and a threat along the endline, but Rehder’s slide snuffed the play.“This is probably the best team we’ve faced so far, and we did a number of things better,” Kearns said. “In previous games, some were able to split our defenders, and that didn’t really happen. I was able to make some rushes out, confident they’d back me up.”“Nick is always solid for us,” Falli said. “He gives us an opportunity to win every match. Today I also thought Blake (Biery) was at his best. He took over in the middle, especially in the second half. He threaded the needle with some of his passes. Julian, Omar (Carreno), Mitch and Adan don’t get a lot of their chances without Blake. He was the engine that made our offense run.”Oswego journeys to Minooka on Thursday for another SPC contest.North, which “got banged up some more” according to Berry, returns home for a Thursday date against a St. Charles East squad likely to be playing angry after a rare Upstate Eight Conference loss to Elgin -- 3-2 on Tuesday.“We really need to get ready for a tough outing and that means cleaning up a lot. Both teams hit the post and essentially we capitalized on a mistake,” Berry said. “It was our first game on grass, and you could say it helped us get used to the pace of the ball on something other than turf, but we let too many factors get in the way of playing smart, quality soccer.”